Synthesis and characterization of nano-crystalline silicon grown by atom beam sputtering technique are reported. Rapid thermal annealing of the deposited films is carried out in Ar + 5% H2 atmosphere for 5 min at different temperatures for precipitation of silicon nano-crystals. The samples are characterized for their optical and structural properties using various techniques. Structural studie...

A consistent conventional theoretical description is presented for anomalous lowenergy deuterium nuclear fusion in micro/nano-scale metal grains and particles. The theory is based on the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) state occupied by deuterons trapped in a micro/nano-scale metal grain or particle. The theory is capable of explaining most of the experimentally observed results and also provide...

In this paper, the authors define new classes of devices based on nanocomposite materials (NMs). The work introduces approaches about the design and the experimental characterization of these materials. A wide range of applications is presented by discussing novel devices implemented by nanocomposite techniques including sensing and robotic in micro/nano scale. The approaches are oriented on th...

In this work, we report the formation of a family of organic micro-/nano-pillars prepared from surface-assisted self-assembly processes and factors controlling the growth of the pillars. These acids include cyanuric acid (CA), 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (TMA), 1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxylic acid (TA) and 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic acid (PTA). Aqueous solutions mixed with acids and me...

Oxygenation is a key parameter in tumor spheroid culturing. This work reports on the study of oxygen concentration and gas exchange dynamics in two-phase microfluidic droplet systems. Initial measurements of oxygen in single, oilcovered aqueous droplets in micro-wells show the feasibility of droplet-based sensing. We further introduce on-chip generation and trapping of individual droplets with ...

In this work, a droplet microfluidic device integrated with droplet sorting function was presented for single cancer cell encapsulations and protease activity measurements. Individual cells were encapsulated into aqueous droplets at flow focusing junction under jetting conditions. Droplets with cells encapsulated inside are larger than other empty droplets, enabling effective droplet sorting th...

Reversible control of surface wettability has wide applications in lab-on-chip systems, tunable optical lenses, and microfluidic tools. Using a graphene sheet as a sample material and molecular dynamic simulations, we demonstrate that strain engineering can serve as an effective way to control the surface wettability. The contact angles θ of water droplets on a graphene vary from 72.5◦ to 106◦ ...

Micro and nano electro mechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) have emerged as a technology that integrates micro/nano mechanical structures with microelectronics, mainly for sensing and actuation applications. MEMS and NEMS sensor systems that can operate in the presence of high temperatures, corrosive media and/or high radiation will reduce weight, improve machine reliability and reduce cost in st...

This paper presents a new method for preparing micro droplets inside the liquid layer at a T-junction in a microchannel network. The relations between droplet size, flow speed, and channel size are studied. The droplet size is easily varied by changing the flow conditions in the microchannels. The size distribution of the resulting droplets is very narrow.

A novel quantitative nano+micro-tribometer with integrated SPM and optical microscope imaging has been developed to characterize numerous physical and mechanical properties of liquid and solid thin films and coatings, with in-situ monitoring their changes during micro and nano indentation, scratching, reciprocating, rotating and other tribology tests. Both the materials properties and surface t...